NodeJS - Error installing with NPM

Question

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>npm install caress-server
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/caress-server
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/caress-server
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/jspack/0.0.1
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/buffertools
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/jspack/0.0.1
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/buffertools

> buffertools@2.0.1 install C:\Windows\system32\node_modules\caress-server\node_
modules\buffertools
> node-gyp rebuild


C:\Windows\system32\node_modules\caress-server\node_modules\buffertools>node "G:
\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node-gyp-bin\\..\..\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-
gyp.js" rebuild
gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: Can't find Python executable "python", you can set the PYT
HON env variable.
gyp ERR! stack     at failNoPython (G:\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node
-gyp\lib\configure.js:101:14)
gyp ERR! stack     at G:\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\confi
gure.js:64:11
gyp ERR! stack     at Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 6.2.9200
gyp ERR! command "node" "G:\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\
bin\\node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd C:\Windows\system32\node_modules\caress-server\node_modules\buffert
ools
gyp ERR! node -v v0.10.25
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.12.2
gyp ERR! not ok
npm ERR! buffertools@2.0.1 install: `node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the buffertools@2.0.1 install script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the buffertools package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     node-gyp rebuild
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls buffertools
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! System Windows_NT 6.2.9200
npm ERR! command "G:\\nodejs\\\\node.exe" "G:\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\n
pm-cli.js" "install" "caress-server"
npm ERR! cwd C:\Windows\system32
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.25
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.24
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     C:\Windows\system32\npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

C:\Windows\system32>

I am installing a certain NodeJS script - Caress. But i am not unable to. I am using Windows 8.1, can anyone tell me what is the problem i am facing, and why is this installation not working. There seems to be a problem with the buffertools dependency, thats far as i can think. Dont know how maybe fix this?

If i download the build from github and place it in node-modules, nothing seems to work. when i try to start, using npm start, or during implementation either.

G:\nodejs\node_modules\caress-server>npm install

G:\nodejs\node_modules\caress-server>npm start

> caress-server@0.1.1 start G:\nodejs\node_modules\caress-server
> node examples/server.js

   info  - socket.io started

module.js:340
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Cannot find module './build/Release/buffertools.node'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)
    at require (module.js:380:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (G:\nodejs\node_modules\caress-server\node_modules\buf
fertools\buffertools.js:16:19)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)

npm ERR! caress-server@0.1.1 start: `node examples/server.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 8
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the caress-server@0.1.1 start script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the caress-server package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     node examples/server.js
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls caress-server
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! System Windows_NT 6.2.9200
npm ERR! command "G:\\nodejs\\\\node.exe" "G:\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\n
pm-cli.js" "start"
npm ERR! cwd G:\nodejs\node_modules\caress-server
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.25
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.24
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     G:\nodejs\node_modules\caress-server\npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

G:\nodejs\node_modules\caress-server>

Answer 1

As commented below you may not need to install VS on windows, check this out

https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp/issues/629#issuecomment-153196245

UPDATED 02/2016

Some npm plugins need node-gyp to be installed.

However, node-gyp has it's own dependencies (from the github page):

UPDATED 09/2016

If you're using Windows you can now install all node-gyp dependencies with single command (NOTE: Run As Admin in Windows PowerShell):

 $ npm install --global --production windows-build-tools

and then install the package

 $ npm install --global node-gyp

UPDATED 06/2018

https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp/issues/809#issuecomment-155019383

Delete your $HOME/.node-gyp directory and try again.

See full documentation here: node-gyp

Answer 2

For Cygwin users:

The python issue with using npm on an out-of-the-box Cygwin installation, is that node-gyp is giving a misleading error due to incomplete checking in the ../npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js code.

It's due to how Cygwin treats symbolic links. It doesn't do that properly in an out-of-the box installation. So the error messages from the above code become misleading, as it complains about the PYTHON path and not the existence of python.exe (or link of) file itself.

There are (at least) 2 ways to resolve this.

1. Installing the Cygwin package cygutils-extra and use winln.
2. Use native Windows CMD in Admin mode.

---

For (1) you can create a proper symlink from within Cygwin shell by doing these steps:

# To make the Cygwin environment treat Windows links properly: 
# Alternatively add this to your `.bashrc` for permanent use.
export CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict

# Install Cygwin package containing "winln"
apt-cyg install cygutils-extra

# Make a proper Windows sym-link:
cd /cygdrive/c/cygwin64/bin/
winln.exe -s python2.7.exe python.exe

# Add PYTHON as a native Windows system wide variable (HKLM) 
setx /M PYTHON "C:\cygwin64\bin\python"

(Also assuming you are running the Cygwin shell as Admin.) Using apt-cyg is recommended and can be found in various forms on github.

---

For (2) the resolution for out-of-the-box Cygwin users is this:

# Open a native Windows CMD in Administrator mode and:
cd C:\cygwin64\bin\
mklink python.exe python2.7.exe

The result should look like this:

C:\cygwin64\bin>ls -al python*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 xxx            xxx   13 Jun  2  2015 python -> python2.7.exe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Administrators xxx   13 Aug 24 17:28 python.exe -> python2.7.exe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 xxx            xxx   13 Jun  2  2015 python2 -> python2.7.exe
-rwxr-xr-x 1 xxx            xxx 9235 Jun  2  2015 python2.7.exe

Answer 3

gyp ERR! configure error gyp ERR! stack Error: Can't find Python executable "python", you can set the PYT HON env variable.

This means the Python env. variable should point to the executable python file, in my case: SET PYTHON=C:\work\_env\Python27\python.exe

Answer 4

Make sure you have all the required software to run node-gyp:

• https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-gyp

You can configure version of Visual Studio used by node-gyp via an environment variable so you can avoid having to set the --msvs_version=2012 property every time you do an npm install.

Examples:

• set GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2012 for Visual Studio 2012
• set GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2013e (the 'e' stands for FREE 'express edition')

For the full list see - https://github.com/joyent/node/blob/v0.10.29/tools/gyp/pylib/gyp/MSVSVersion.py#L209-294

This is still painful for Windows users of NodeJS as it assumes you have a copy of Visual Studio installed and many end users will never have this. So I'm lobbying Joyent to the encourage them to include web sockets as part of CORE node and also to possible ship a GNU gcc compiler as part of NodeJS install so we can permanently fix this problem.

Feel free to add your vote at:

• https://github.com/joyent/node/issues/8005#issuecomment-50545326

Answer 5

for me the solution was:

rm -rf  ~/.node_gyp and
sudo npm install -g node-gyp@3.4.0
cd /usr/local/lib sudo ln -s ../../lib/libSystem.B.dylib libgcc_s.10.5.dylib 
brew install gcc
npm install

Answer 6

For windows

Check python path in system variable. npm plugins need node-gyp to be installed.

open command prompt with admin rights, and run following command.

npm install --global --production windows-build-tools

npm install --global node-gyp